It's Funny Where Ben's Train Takes Him

by Robert Burleigh, Joanna Yardley (Illustrator)

Ben's amazing imagination concocts a magical train that takes bedtime adventurers from snowy mountain peaks to green hills sprinkled with cows and horses to city skyscrapers.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Over the past 35 years, I have published poems, reviews, essays, many filmstrips and videos, and more than 40 children's picture books.

Born and raised in Chicago, I graduated from DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) and later received an MA in humanities from the University of Chicago. I've published books for children since the early 1990s. My books - including numerous unpublished ones! - run a broad gamut, from stories geared for pre-schoolers to survival stories and biographies aimed at seven to eleven-year-olds. My work is wide-ranging because, basically, I'm a generalist by experience - and inclination!

In addition to writing, I paint regularly under the art name Burleigh Kronquist and have shown work in one-person and group shows in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere around the country.

-from robertburleigh.com

Reviews

[Minday Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cute little book, about Ben and his train. My son read most of it by himself.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a clever book, more for the illustrations than text; the text is good, the illustrations great. The author takes the reader into Ben's imagination and in it are things from his bedroom. His blocks make towns and cities. His animals make farms. It also has objects that kids can recognize and point out so that they are engaged in the act of reading. For example, on page there is an airplane in the sky. It isn't the focus of the page, but it is a detail kids will pick up on. Some kids books are too simple. This author seems to respect his young readers.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

trains, dreams, rhyming

[Dylan & Belle at LearnPlayFun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rated and reviewed by Dylan, age 7:

This book is about a kid who draws a train and it comes alive. My favorite part was the In-My-Bed Station at the end of the book.